Thursday, April 26, 2012

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE SPACE

Spatial mining sensed by Isaac Asimov in his book I, Robot, is materialized with the beginning activities of the American company Planetary Resouces Inc., initially designed to extract water and minerals from Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs), the main asteroid belt (located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter) and more ahead of planets in our solar system. As the search for gold in the far west, the space adventure takes place in unexplored areas without competitors, or by law. A huge epic mobilized by a group of brave pioneers (Eric Anderson, Peter H. Diamandis, Christopher A. Lewicki, Thomas D. Jones, James Cameron, Tom Jones, etc), determined to win the jackpot. They expect that they earnings surpasse the initial investment of 50 billion dollars. To make matters better and according to Marc Kuchner (Princeton University) and other American astronomers sustain that in the bark of Urane and Neptune exists thick strips of diamonds.

The company expect to follow these steps: I) In the next 2 years, to launch a spacecraft (Arkyd : 100 and 300 Series), carrying a telescope browser. II) Because of the lack of gravity and atmosphere in asteroids, it will be easy to land on them. Mining robotic craft will not need big engines or parachutes for landing. Ice water will be extracted from asteroids to maintain life, break it down into breathable O and propellent H for interplanetary spacecraft. III) A robotic spacecraft will take pieces of mining asteroids extracting platinum to be used in jewelry, electronics and cars, iron and nickel to be used in space factories and other structures. Unlike Earth where heavy metals are close to her core, heavy metals in asteroids are distributed diffusely being easier to remove them.